2014 British Grand Prix

Which F1 driver was the best performer during the British Grand Prix weekend?

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.

British Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Started from the front row for the first time since Malaysia after an excellent lap at the end of Q3. But didn’t get off the line well and was relegated by both McLaren drivers and Hamilton. His early first pit stop allowed him to get back in among the McLarens but it also forced him to make another pit stop later in the race. He was passed by Alonso on his out-lap, beginning a battle which looked fabulous but didn’t do his chances much good. He eventually squeezed past for fifth, but rued the strategic mis-step.

Daniel Ricciardo – The stewards decided against punishing Ricciardo after he overtook Alonso under a red flag during practice. He made the mistake of not running at all in the final moments of Q3, mistakenly believing the track wouldn’t improve enough, which meant he fell to eighth on the grid. His race went better, however – he passed the struggling Hulkenberg early on and gambled on making it to the end of the race after his lap 15 pit stop. It paid off handsomely for his fourth podium finish.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Like Ricciardo, the stewards cleared Rosberg after investigating him for overtaking Kvyat under a red flag during practice. In Q3 he began his final lap looking extremely unlikely to take pole position – tucked up behind Hamilton’s rear wing on a greasy track. But then Hamilton pulled over and Rosberg took advantage of the rapidly-drying final sector to claim another qualifying win over Hamilton. In the race he wasn’t able to match Hamilton pace and the pair were poised to cross paths when Rosberg’s gearbox failed.

Lewis Hamilton – Lost half an hour of running in final practice due to an engine glitch. Made a costly mistake by abandoning his final lap in qualifying, believing the track was too wet, which dropped him from provisional pole position to sixth on the grid. He made light work of the McLarens and Vettel at the start, and after switching to the hard tyre he was flying. A pity we never got to see the fight between him and Rosberg which was about to unfold.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – A spin in Q1 kept him from making it to the second phase of qualifying. The red flag during the race meant he only had to use the hard tyres for lap one – he spent the rest of the race on mediums, pitting once, and passing several rivals early on. He picked up a five-second penalty for starting the race too far forward in his grid slot, and was shown the black-and-white flag for straying beyond the track limits too often. But he put an excellent move on Vettel at Abbey and stayed ahead for 13 laps despite debris lodged in his rear wing causing balance problems.

Kimi Raikkonen – Like Alonso he failed to proceed beyond Q1 as the team responded too slowly to the changing conditions. He ran wide at Aintree at the start, and lost control when he tried to rejoin the circuit at speed, causing a heavy crash.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Had a near-miss at the start when his visor was damaged by debris from Raikkonen’s crash. Switched to the hard tyres at the restart and spent more than half the race on them, though the car performed better on the mediums.

Pastor Maldonado – A lack of fuel caused him to stop his car during qualifying, and he was then excluded for the infraction. Starting from the tail of the field he was hit by Gutierrez early on, then retired shortly before the chequered flag.

McLaren

Jenson Button – Ron Dennis’s comments that Button should try harder seemed inappropriate given the deficiencies of McLaren’s current car. Damp qualifying was made for him and he delivered a third place the car did not look capable of holding on to in the race. Sure enough Ricciardo’s quicker Red Bull got ahead, though Button was bearing down on him at the end of the race, tantalisingly close to a first-ever home podium finish.

Kevin Magnussen – Couldn’t take advantage of the Alonso-Vettel battle in front of him to claim a higher finishing position than seventh.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – The Force India seemed particularly sensitive to the wind at Silverstone. Having taken a season-best fourth on the grid, Hulkenberg slumped to ninth as he grappled with his car.

Sergio Perez – Just when it looked like he was about to turn around his poor qualifying record, Perez blew it by failing to get his tyres up to temperature in time for a final run. He slipped back to seventh, and a first-corner tangle with Vergne spoiled his race.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – The Sauber continues to look like the most uncomfortable car in the field, with the exception of the Caterham. Both drivers spun in the wet conditions in qualifying, Sutil – secured a place in Q2 partly thanks to his spin, as it prevented others from improving. In the race he was vexed by braking problems again, finishing a distant 13th.

Esteban Gutierrez – Carried a ten-place grid penalty into the race from Austria, picked up a five-place penalty for changing his gearbox after his qualifying spin, and left with a three-place penalty for Germany after colliding with Maldonado, which led to his retirement.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Suffered a front-wheel failure on one of Silverstone’s quickest corners during second practice. Claimed a place in Q3 but neither driver did a final run, leaving them on the fifth row. However despite a tangle with Perez at the start, which left him at the back when the race got going again, he regained the lost ground to his team mate.

Daniil Kvyat – Impressive in wet qualifying again, Kvyat brought his car home where he qualified it in ninth.

Williams

Felipe Massa – His 200th race start was one to forget: he was eliminated in Q1, then eliminated again on lap one. The latter came courtesy of Raikkonen’s crash, and Massa’s quick reflexes prevented a much worse accident.

Valtteri Bottas – Having also dropped out in Q1 several penalties for other drivers promoted Bottas to 14th. From there he wielded the Williams straight-line speed advantage brilliantly carving past his rivals to take third place mainly due to on-track passes, and gaining second thanks to Rosberg’s retirement.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – His Friday running was limited by technical problems in both sessions on Friday. But in the rain-hit qualifying session he delivered a best-ever 12th place for himself and Marussia. It was always going to be a challenge to stay there – Sutil’s Sauber made it by on lap eight – and Bianchi was 14th at the flag.

Max Chilton – Was enormously fortunate not to suffer a much worse injury after his car was hit by a flying wheel from Raikkonen’s crash. Proof that he had used up all his luck came quickly – a radio fault meant his team were unable to tell him to stay out of the pits, and as he came in under a red flag he not only received a drive-through penalty, but immediately went a lap down, ensuring he finished last.

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – Was also involved in the Raikkonen crash but was able to participate in the restart. His car felt strange afterwards – “almost certainly from the rallying I had to do” – but he brought it home 15th.

Marcus Ericsson – Like Kobayashi he failed to make the 107% cut in Q1 and was given a dispensation from the stewards to start the race. He only made it ten laps in before his suspension failed.

128 comments on Vote for your 2014 British GP Driver of the Weekend

I almost chose Bottas over Alonso close second but in the last moment I remembered it is called driver of the weekend not the race, therefore it can only be Button. Strong qualifying followed by a strong race result.

It is driver of the GP and the GP is the race, every thing else are just preliminaries. Alonso was the greatest one, overtaking everybody, everywhere and everyway from the beginning , finishing 6th after starting 16th with a 5sec penalty, a mediocre car and aerodynamic problems, amazing from the beginning till the end of the race (what in fact IS the Grand Prix)

For me it has to be Button. He rung the neck of the McLaren all weekend, and in qualifying took it somewhere it had no right to be. That, coupled with a brilliant race for him, keeping well up the field and running Ricciardo in the superior Red Bull very, very close indeed. Bottas was another consideration, but in the end, Button delivered the goods all weekend, and we’ll never know whether Bottas would have actually put that car where it should have been, or whether he would have made a mistake. For that reason, Button was the only choice that made sense to me.

Driver of the race was probably Bottas for me, but being caught out in Q1 didn’t look good on Ferrari, but I think it’s even worse on Williams. He should have been higher up, especially since he did well in FP3.

Meanwhile Jenson ‘can’t out-perform his car’ Button qualified in an opportunistic 3rd, but ended up a lap short of finishing there, despite fights with Alonso in which Alonso seemed to have the better car by a mile, who later, when passed, was dwarfed by Vettel, who didn’t come very close to Button after that.

I think this might be the 3rd time ever I’ve voted for Button since starting to vote in 2012 or so?

I had a difficult time deciding between Bottas and Button. I feel as though the comments above saying “well Jenson had to be TOLD to try to catch RIC” are a bit off base — at least having watched the race on America TV coverage, we heard just the one radio xmission stating (paraphrasing here) “Jenson, we think Ricciardo is going to the end, get after him” — which is a bit thin to state that he needed to be prodded to race. Love it or hate it, Jenson was managing his own tires per a strategy that I suspect evolved through the race as the team determined other driver’s strategies. In the end it was all even to me, as I would have been thrilled to see either RIC or BUT on podium!

Close between Bottas and Alonso, but I chose Bottas. The way he was passing on the first stint was incredible. He couldn’t have really done any better. Honorable mentions to Alonso and Riccardio. The Alonso/Vettel battle was edge-of-the-seat stuff – something that I wish he had seen more of over the past few years.

I voted for Ricciardo simply because he made his tyres last so long to clinch a well deserved podium. Bottas has gotten a ton of praise and he did a good job although his car was easily the fastest out there other than the Mercs and all he had to do was keep it on the track. Button received plenty of votes but I only attribute that to the predominantly British patriots on this site as he didn’t do anything spectacular on track; Just a typical solid effort. I thought despite the mechanical fault Rosberg would be close to the driver of the weekend. He placed the car on pole whilst his petulant team mate fumbled. If not for the mechanical issues I do believe Nico could have managed the race from the front and been on the top step. At least the mechanical issues and thus Hamilton winning, saved the world from seeing yet another dummy spit from the ‘darling boy of British racing’…

Got to be between Bottas and Ricciardo. Sure Bottas finished higher and made up a hell of a lot more spots, but at the same time he has a Mercedes engine. My vote goes to Ricciardo, making the options last 37 laps to pick up an unlikely podium, amazing.

I really don’t get the votes for hamilton. Lost pole because he was to arrogant to finish his final q3 lap and most likely would’ve finished behind rosberg in the race if he didn’t have a gearbox issue.

Bottas and Alonso both had a great race, very impressive but neither performed in qualifying. Daniel ricciardo was equally impressive but unfortunately his team let him down in q3.

Drive of the weekend has to go to Jenson Button, in a car worse than many of his competitors he qualified 3rd and drove brilliantly to secure 4th.

He dropped out of qualifying in Q1 due to a team mistake which meant he had the chance to put in an impressive recovery to get second, which was thoroughly deserved.

Second choice would be Alonso, a similar story to Bottas in that he was out in Q1 on Saturday and worked his way through the field on Sunday, but he made a mistake with his grid slot at the start, however he still managed to maximise the cars potential as usual.

Ricciardo continues to impress and again managed to beat Vettel.

Hamilton again made a mistake in qualifying and looked completely dejected in interviews afterwards. But on Sunday he had picked himself up and seemed on a mission in the race, even without Rosberg’s retirement I feel he would have won the race.